Improved gun-harpoon



0. ALLEN. Bomb-Lance.

No, 5,949. Patented December *5; 1848.

PATENT IEEIcE.

OLIVER ALLEN, OF NORWICH, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVED GUN-HARPOON.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 5,949, dated December 5, 1848.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OLIVER ALLEN, ofNorwith, in the county of New London and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Gun-Harpoon; and I do hereby declare that the same is fully described and represented in the following specification and accompanying drawings, letters, figures, and references thereof.

Of the said drawings, Figure 1 denotes a side elevation of my improved gun-harp0on. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of that portion of the shank which is usually inserted in the gun, from which the instrument is to be discharged by the explosion of gunpowder.

The said harpoon I make with a barbed head or point having four or any other suitable number ofbarbs, a a, 8m. The shank for about half its length is composed of an iron rod, 1), which terminates in a head or button, 0, from which the rest of the shank extends, and is made of two thin strips or bars of metal, (I 6, made to cross one another at right angles, as seen in Fig. 2. They are united to the button 0 by a ferrule, tube, or projection, f, therefrom. At their rear ends they are fastened to a short cylinder, 9, ofa little less than the diameter of the bore of the gun used for projecting the harpoon. The line which is connected with said harpoon is to be tied or attached to it just in advance of the button or shoulder, and so as to bear against said button after the harpoon has been shot from the gun.

The method heretofore used for attaching a line to a gun-harpoon has been to secure it to a swivel made to freely slide upon the shank. The said swivel, as soon as the instrument leaves the gun, falls back against a button or head made upon the rear end of the harpoon. It is exceedingly difficult, if not absolutely impossible, to shoot a harpoon from a gun with accuracy when the line is appended to it by such a sliding swivel, or is attached to the rear end of the instrument. It must be fastened at or near the middle of the harpoon gun by the explosion of the charge thereof,v

or, in other words, the above-specified combination and arrangement of the barbed head and shank with the button 0, the crossed strips d e, and the short cylinder, g, the peculiar arrangement of the button 0 with respect to the other parts enabling the line to be fixed to the harpoon at such part of it as will prevent it (the said line) from exercising, during the flight of the instrument, any action calculated to injuriously affect the straight course thereof, the combination possessing, in a high degree, the particular requisites of lightness, steadiness of flight, strength, and ease of propulsion.

In testimony whereof I have hereto set my signature this 8th day of November, A. D. 1848.

OLIVER ALLEN. 

